There are many types of consumable products that need to be properly handled and stored in order to maintain the suitability or consumability of those products. Improper handling or storage of many types of food, drink, or medicinal items may cause excessive spoilage, aging or even chemical changes that may result in dangerous side effects if consumed. The problem is that it is almost impossible for a typical consumer or purchaser of a consumable product to know the entire history of an item that has been purchased from a store shelf, and whether or not that item has suffered from improper shipping, handling, or storage conditions prior to being placed on the store shelf or while in the owner's care.
For example, consider the consumer that seeks to purchase a bottle of wine from a wine vendor. Wine is a type of alcoholic beverage that is made from a fermentation process involving various types of grapes or other fruits. The wine that is typically purchased by a consumer in a store is usually stored and sealed within glass bottles, which is traditionally sealed with a cork. There are many types and levels of wines, from the relatively inexpensive to the very expensive vintages. Indeed, outstanding wine vintages from the best vineyards may sell for thousands of dollars per bottle.
Wine is a type of consumable product that is particularly susceptible to negative effects on its drinkability because of exposure to external handling or storage conditions. This is because wine in the bottle continues to change over time as a result of expected chemical changes that occur to the wine as it ages. However, the timing of the drinkability of the wine is heavily dependent upon exactly how quickly or slowly the chemical changes occur to the wine and the specific environmental circumstances that causes the changes. For example, wine that has been exposed to excessive heat conditions or drastic fluctuations in temperatures may be severely and negatively affected by those conditions.
The issue for a typical wine purchaser is that the purchaser or consumer of wine does not conventionally have any way of knowing whether a particular bottle of wine has been properly stored or handled prior to his/her purchase of that bottle of wine. Indeed, it is quite possible that the wine to be purchased by a consumer has undergone extreme conditions during shipment, storage, or handling of that wine which has severely and negatively affected the drinkability of that wine. It is literally a matter of chance for the consumer to select a bottle of wine from a store shelf and expect that wine to be in an acceptable condition. This uncertainty regarding the drinkability of the wine is particularly troublesome if the consumer is purchasing a very expensive wine product.
Even if the wine was in acceptable condition at the time of purchase, it is possible that due to its handling or storage history, that wine has been accelerated into a mature state where it needs to be immediately consumed since any further aging would cause the wine to be less drinkable. However, since the handling/storage history of the wine is unknown to the consumer, this means that the consumer may very well store that bottle of wine according to an assumed storage history, unknowingly letting the wine age beyond its optimal drinking stage.